Sunday, February 5, 2012

Week Three

This
week I worked two days in the library. I was able to take a day off of work and
be at the Biloxi Library for the Preschool program in the morning and the After
School program in the afternoon on Groundhog Day, February 2nd.
Liz and I were there early getting the Children’s area ready, putting the
chairs in place for the moms and grandmothers that bring the children and
getting the cart out with our craft that we had worked on. Liz has the
Preschool program every Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The children began arriving
slightly before 10 and ranged in age from a 5 week old to 5 year olds. The
infant was just along because Mom and older siblings were there.

The program
started out with Liz introducing me to the children and then I read a story to
them, Go to Sleep Groundhog by Judy Cox.
They were very attentive as they are very used to attending story time at the
library. And they ask a lot of questions and participate when asked about the
story. Liz and I then did a poem about Groundhogs and their shadows with paper
puppets we made for the activity. We sang some songs about Groundhogs and then
we went in the courtyard with the children to see our own shadows and step on
each others shadow. Liz then read one more story I had selected, Bear Shadow by Frank Asch.

The morning wasn’t over yet as we still had a
craft for the children to do. When we had discussed activities for the program
I mentioned to Liz what I had put on my calendar for my LIS 492 final project.
It was a construction paper groundhog popping up out of a paper cup. When I
started telling her she pulled out the picture of the one she was thinking of
doing and it was the same principle so, that is what we did with the children,
only we copied and cut our groundhogs for them to color. The children enjoyed
the activity and were thrilled with their groundhogs to take home.

After the
preschool group was gone I assisted Liz in working on her two bulletin boards that
she is responsible for, one in the children’s area and the other in the teen
area. Since Mardi Gras is later this month that is what the focus is for the
boards. In the teen area we printed facts about Mardi Gras on “doubloons” in
the three colors of Mardi Gras and placed them on the board with the saying, “Did
you know?” For the children’s board Liz,
as I am not an artist, drew and cut out a large Mardi Gras mask in green. We
then decorated it and made poster board “feathers” that we put the name, date,
time and place of some of the parades in the area. At the bottom we also
included the website that shows the parade routes for interested parents.
Around the huge mask we placed Mardi Gras symbols. I will try to take pictures
next week as I did not bring the camera.

By this
time we were waiting for our After School group that was due at 4 p.m. And we
kept waiting until about 4:45 p.m. when one child showed up. I unfortunately
had to leave by 5 p.m. as I had a night class to attend so I was not able to
stay so Liz worked with her and really let the child read the book, Shadow by Marcia Brown. I had selected
that book for the older children along with a book containing facts and fun
items about groundhogs. It was called The
Groundhog Day Book of facts and fun by Wendie Old. At the end there were
questions that I had planned to ask the children, had we had any. I was a bit
disappointed that the older children did not show up, but Liz said she just
never is sure how many will show up. She has tried having them sign up, but
that isn’t always a sure thing either. Same has happened with the TWT group, we
tried it both ways sign up before or just take you chances, and it all ends up
about the same.

It was and
interesting day on Thursday, not like Saturdays at all. The weekend patrons
tend to go for the DVD’s and when there is something planned such as TWT, then
we have children and parents. The patrons for Thursday were more interested in
locating books and using the computers. I did take sometime to go into the
Genealogy Department where I was given a brief tour of their Archives Room. It
is very impressive, especially since it is all brand new equipment since
Katrina. They are presently rebuilding their inventory since the storm since
they were able to salvage very little. I hope in the coming weeks to be able to
work with them and learn more about the department and what it has to offer.

My second
day at the library this week was very ordinary and not much going on, the
biggest excitement was the noisy meeting taking place in one of the rooms
available to patrons. It was basically a
very slow day and once I had helped cover lunches at the Circulation desk I
pulled the list off the library’s website for the requests from the other
libraries in the system. The actual pulling of the material and checking it in
for transport took the rest of the afternoon with a couple of interruptions to
stop and assist patrons in locating items they were looking for. Unusual for a Saturday was the slow activity
for the movie section but we attributed that to the beginning of Mardi Gras
parades and the Super Bowl this weekend and now, on to watch the Super Bowl
myself, just wish my Saints were there.